‘Write from the soul. Not from some notion the market-place wants. The market is fickle; the soul is eternal.’
– Jeffrey A Carver
I have to admit, that when writing or coming up with an idea for a written piece, I never think about what trends are popular at the moment, or what my market would be interested in reading. As Carol Blake wrote, ‘starting your novel today means that the earliest it could be published is three years from now (…) you would need a crystal ball to know what will be hot in the marketplace in three years’ time.’ This means that by the time your work is published, all of your readers will have moved on to a new trend. Vampires become dystopian fiction, dystopia becomes medieval fantasy which becomes zombies or romances about snowmen. There is no sure way to determine what readers will want next.
As writers, we are warned time and time again not to write for ourselves, but personally, I think that if we aren’t writing something we can become emotionally invested in, then why do we need to be the one to tell that story at all? If even the author doesn’t feel strongly about the work, then who will? And how do you intend to promote something you regard only with indifference?
As Jeffrey A Carver says, ‘the soul is eternal.’ To write something that has significant meaning to you, or have characters you can relate to and feel a bond with, makes a novel feel worth writing whether it becomes published or not. If you write something that meets the market’s demands, but the writing is dispassionate or the characters dull, it will still end up at the bottom of the rejection pile. If you write something you are invested in with believable characters and a strong narrative voice, eventually the market may change in your favour and you can submit a manuscript you’re proud to have your name on.
I have found in the past, that trying to mimic other writers’ styles or attempting to write about things I am unfamiliar with simply because they have worked well for other people, has never produced work that I could be happy with. If I tried using a voice that wasn’t my own, the writing felt forced. I struggled to say what I wanted to because I felt that I couldn’t use my own words. Writing things outside my comfort zone has resulted in a similar experience because I couldn’t feel enthusiastic about writing something I wasn’t interested in.
In conclusion, I feel the best approach for me to take is to write about subjects that interest me and develop my own style, meaning that I can create characters in a world that I care about so that I am able to produce a piece of high-quality work. There is always an opportunity to find a way to tailor your novel to the market once it is finished, but it must be how you envisioned it or something that you are happy to be associated with. After all, if it does get published, it’s your name on the cover.